Dioxins are environmental pollutants that
stay in the body for long periods of time because they can accumulate in
fat tissue. They are mainly by-products of combustion and industrial
processes. Long-term exposure to dioxins has been suspected to have a
host of toxicities, causing health issues such as cancer and impairment
of the immune system and the developing nervous system.
In the body, dioxin readily forms a complex with the aryl hydrocarbon
receptor (AhR), a transcription factor protein whose real function has
yet to be clarified. The manifestations of dioxin toxicities require
AhR. It was previously shown that adult rodents born to mice exposed to
dioxins during pregnancy display cognitive and behavioral abnormalities.
However, the underlying mechanisms of such manifestations have remained
unclear.
In search of an answer, researchers centered at University of Tsukuba
studied the possible effects of excessive activation of AhR
signaling--a phenomenon thought to mimic the exposure of AhR to
dioxins--on neurodevelopmental processes in mice, such as cellular
migration and neurite growth. Their work was recently published in Scientific Reports.
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